The present invention relates to the field of network-based user interfaces to a provisioning system and a billing system.
Customer accounts and much of the equipment interfaced to a network are currently controlled by a network service provider company. Each time a customer requires service to their account and equipment they must contact the company and speak to an employee. Every new customer wishing to open an account and subscribe to the company""s services must also speak to the company""s employees. Once the employees understand the customer""s needs, they must manually carry out the requested changes, open new accounts, close existing accounts, dispatch a truck to the customer""s locations, and so on. The cost to support these customer calls can run into the millions of dollars each year for large multiple subscriber organization companies.
From the customer""s point of view, many would like greater direct control over their accounts and services for which they have subscribed. (These subscriptions may extend beyond network services to include video and telephone services.) A qualified customer that brings home a new personal computer in the evening would like to have the machine connected to the network that night. Dissatisfaction may result if the customer must wait until the next day when a company employee is available to register the new machine with the network""s provisioning system. New customers would like to be able to hook up to the network and open a new account directly from their computer, as can be done with several larger national Internet service providers.
Presently, the provisioning system and billing system support tools used by the employees tend to be designed for very specific applications and were intended to be used by technically knowledgeable personnel. These tools lack the scaling, polish, cohesiveness and security necessary for use by the customers.
A customer oriented self service gateway can be used to shift some of the more basic tasks of maintaining existing customer accounts and adding new customers from the company employees to the customers. The basic idea is that once properly authenticated, a customer should be trusted and empowered to create and change various aspects of their accounts, sub-accounts, and settings in their local equipment. The self service gateway must be flexible and easily-expandable so that any additional functionality that the company wishes to allocate to the customers can be quickly deployed.
The present invention is a self service gateway and method of operation that allows a user on a network to interface with the provisioning system and the billing system of the network. The state of the self service gateway is controlled by at least one user interface program that interfaces to the users, the provisioning system, and the billing system. User identifications, passwords and other user related data is stored in a record database. A tool database holds a set of tools used to instruct or enable the user interface program to invoke, present, and process information to and from the users. HTML web page layouts are stored in another database. A web server program and web browsers provide a standard set of protocols for communicating on the network, including a secure socket layer that encrypts all communications. In operation, the user firsts login with the self service gateway. After a successful login, the user provides commands and inputs that may result in changes to the provisioning system and the billing system.
Division of the functionality between the user interface program, tool database, and web page layout database allows existing tools and web pages to be integrated into the self service gateway and to be executed as necessary. This makes it easier for the company to maintain and expand the self service gateway""s capabilities while maintaining some uniformity in the look and feel of the self service gateway from the user""s point of view.
Users may be either customers or employees of the network service provider. Employees access the provisioning system and billing system though an independent user interface program, and the employee records are maintained independent of the customer records. Users may reach the self service gateway from the private network of the company, or through public networks across the Internet.
In variation of the self service gateway, the user interface program may be in communications with a logging database to record all changes made by the users. A build tool program may be incorporated to develop and maintain the tools and HTML web pages. Communications may be provided to a customer service system to allow users to request field personnel support for tasks beyond the reach of the self service gateway. One or more network management protocol software programs may be included to support communications between the user interface program and user premise equipment accessible through the network.
Each tool is responsible for defining the validation of inputs associated with its particular function. Validation may range from checking parameters input from the user, and may extend to verifying that the requested changes have in fact been implemented. The tools may be responsive to the Internet Protocol address to restrict users from public networks. Tools may also be responsive to a user level assigned to each user, in order to provide various levels of access into the provisioning system, billing system and databases.
The set of tools includes, but is not limited to, a login authorization tool for controlling entry through the self service gateway. A medium access control address tool allows the user to register new equipment and de-register old equipment with the provisioning system. Password and alternate password change tools allow the user to choose new passwords. E-mail accounts and the associated e-mail parameters are controlled via an e-mail tool. Vanity names for the computer hostnames may be changed using a hostname tool. A service level tool allows the users to change the speed at which their equipment communicates on the network.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system, and a method of operation for a system that allows users on a network to access the provisioning system and the billing system for the network.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the users with access to a customer service system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the users with access to user premise equipment connected to the network.
Yet another object of the present invention is to log all changes initiated through the system.